1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for managing a data backup, and more particularly to an apparatus for managing a data backup wherein a verification of an integrity of the backup data is facilitated a work time required for the verification of the integrity is minimized.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional data backup system backs up the original data and restores the original data using the backup data when the original data is destroyed.
The data backup system uses a storage device supporting a magnetic tape or a disk as a storage medium to store the backup data.
While the storage medium such as the magnetic tape and the disk provides a certain level of reliability, the storage medium does not guarantee a perfect integrity of the backup data.
Particularly, when an error occurs in the storage medium, the data backup system cannot read the backup data resulting in being unable to restore the original data despite the existence of the backup data.
Therefore, the data backup system should check whether the original data can be restored, i.e. the integrity of the backup data before the actual backup data is necessary.
In order to verify the integrity of the backup data, the data backup system reads the backup data stored in the storage medium and transmits the same to a client computer. Thereafter, the data backup system receives a restoration result from the client computer to check whether the backup data is successfully restored by the client computer.
The Verification of the integrity of the backup data has following drawbacks.
The backup data has a size ranging from tens of gigabytes to hundreds of terabytes according to a backup environment. In addition, the backup data includes tens of files to tens of millions of files.
Considering the size and the number of files, it is practically impossible for the data backup system to read and transmit an entirety of the backup data to the client computer in order to verify the integrity.
Moreover, it is difficult to back up the data to the storage medium and to read the backup data at the same time. Therefore, it is preferable that the verification of the integrity of the backup data is carried out when the data is not being backed up by the data backup system.
Generally, because the data backup system carries out the backup during non-working hours, the data backup system should carry out the verification of the integrity of the backup data during working hours. However, when the data backup system reads and transmits the backup data to the client computer during the working hours, a processing of the client computer is affected.
Further, an administrator of the data backup system should carry out a management of the verification of the integrity such as checking that a restoration in the client computer is carried out properly in addition to the backup.
While the verification of the integrity is necessary, the conventional data backup system does not carry out the verification of the integrity due to the above-described drawbacks.